Garth Greenan Season Booklet 2017-2018

January 11–February 17, 2018
Victoria Gitman: Taktisch
Victoria Gitman: Taktisch, an exhibition of paintings and drawings, is the artist’s first
since her recent retrospective at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Eight of Gitman’s
astonishingly naturalistic paintings will be on view, in addition to a selection of
drawings, all created between 2016 and 2017.
The exhibition focuses on Gitman’s recent paintings—meticulously rendered
abstractions based on the supple fur surfaces of vintage handbags. Gitman works
in oils, hair by hair, creating surfaces that are delicately painted from close, direct
observation. Many of the paintings feature abstract patterns evocative of early
and mid-twentieth-century stylistic traditions. Evoking modernist compositional
techniques, Gitman’s new works are resolutely frontal, their imagery extending
edge-to-edge. Each composition is tightly cropped, further intensifying both the
haptic quality and the inherent sensuousness of the artist’s chosen subjects.
The title of the exhibition is a neologism introduced by Vienna School art
historian Aloïs Riegl to describe a kind of close-up perception or “visual touching.”
Taktisch can at once signify “tactile,” “tangible,” “palpable,” or “textural,” as well as
“tactical.” It implies an intimate exchange with art objects, an intermingling of the
experiences of seeing, feeling, and knowing through sensory perception.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1972, Victoria Gitman immigrated to the
United States in 1987. In 1996, she graduated from Florida International University
with a BFA in painting. She has had solo exhibitions at Daniel Weinberg Gallery
(2004, 2006, 2009, Los Angeles), David Nolan Gallery (2006, 2011, New York), and
Tomio Koyama Gallery (2014, Tokyo). In 2005, the Bass Museum of Art, Miami,
mounted On Display, Gitman’s first museum exhibition. Three years later, Looking
Closely, a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings, opened at the Las Vegas
Art Museum.
Victoria Gitman, Untitled, 2016